The boy with the Arab strap…

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“It’s  Friday, so it’s time to start taking it easy…Oh, and don’t forget your prayers today”…the Imam in the tower tried to inform us from the mosque before sunrise.

Strolling down the desolate empty beach I spotted a dead camel, washed up on the sand in the night, so went over to have a closer look. As I approached, a grubby looking Tuareg wearing a pair of Arab wellies and a twisted turban popped up from behind it out of the sand like a genie. With a barked command and a kick of the tired, defenceless beast, he got it to rise up painfully with a groaning fart, and started to beckon to me with a view to climbing aboard the lanky, stinking creature. Once again, he was picking on the wrong fella, as I knew my camels, and had watched him lure a string of vulnerable, pathetic and gullible inner city tourists to mount his steed to look like idiots for a ten minute plod and parade down the beach for some ridiculously inflated cost of their hard earned dobbers!

Not likely Sonny Jim! This degradation is not going to feature on MY Instergram … So with a departing “Salam Alaikum”, I toddled off towards ‘Mo’s Surf Shack & Berber-barber Emporium’, just off the high street, this time opting for a refreshing cut-throat morning shave rather than the full Brazilian Morrocan beach special I got sold the last time…




After ‘Pre Pre’ coffee and crepes the sun had started to warm up the day but the sea was quite far out and quiet again today. 


Next stop, ‘Faisal’s Fine Meats as we have elected for a halal bbq on the terrace with a touch of Charles Aznavour crooning in French  from the Bose.



It would be a shame not to have a taste of some Moroccan plonk with the food so while we were in Agadir yesterday a sample bottle of ‘Ait Souala Grande Reserve 2021’ fell into the basket to try. According to the label it’s produced from a wine estate, located between Casablanca and Rabat, so north of here still on the coast.

The country has historically used the Atlas mountain climate and the cooling Atlantic breeze to produce some decent wine and now it seems, since some investment, the wine is improving. The Muslim fellas round here are not too keen on supping it so most of it is produced for the Western palate so lm happy to be the Guinea pig.

To see if it stands up I’m going to pair it with some Al-Baraka premium dates, a ripe French Camembert and some ‘Agneau della Maroc avec Sel de table’ bought from the local halal butcher, cooked on the top terrace bbq.

The Islamists among us are not so keen  to have a tipple but I would like to remind them that the Arabs, who are mainly Muslim, introduced distillation to us and also bequeathed us with the phrase ‘Al-Khol’. So, when the French colonials were kicked out, King Hassan of Morrocco saw sense and started a rebirth of the vineyards here. Having never been one to let religion stand in the way of progress, I will give it a go…

And the verdict…yes, Iv had better but Iv also had a lot worse, go for it and enjoy, and remember’ Life is too short to drink cheap wine so ask me tomorrow, I’m enjoying today!

Enjoy a bit of Belle & Sebastian here for todays tune.








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